Harvey Weinstein Scandal: Hollywood's Nazi Excuses

In the wake of revelations of the conduct of Hollywood bigwig and Democrat Party's ATM machine Harvey Weinstein, it is amusing to watch A-list actors and others scramble to minimize the damage to their own reputations.

Their cries of "We didn't know" and "I didn't see it" has a familiar ring to it. These excuses were used by the Nazis on trial following the end of World War II.

A new article in National Review hits the nail right on the head:

Accepting the 2005 Oscar he won for gaining a few pounds and being tortured in Syriana, George Clooney made the case for Hollywood as America’s moral conscience:  

You know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while, I think. It’s probably a good thing. We’re the ones who talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects, we are the ones — this Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud to be a part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch. And I thank you so much for this.  

Leaving aside that, on the night she won her Oscar for Gone with the Wind, McDaniel was in fact made to sit away from her colleagues at a table against a far wall, where was Clooney’s moral conscience for the 20 years he was silent about the serial sexual predator who was running amok in his own industry? How can Clooney, Meryl Streep, and their peers continue to claim America’s moral high ground when they simply shrugged at what was going on with their pal Harvey Weinstein? 

Their excuse — “We didn’t know” — doesn’t cut it. Clooney’s Ocean’s Eleven-Twelve-Thirteen costar Brad Pitt knew very well what Harvey Weinstein was up to. Pitt had once threatened to give Weinstein a “Missouri whooping” after the producer sexually harassed his then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1990s. All of those months the pair spent on sets together, they never thought to compare notes on Weinstein’s behavior? Another Ocean’s buddy, Matt Damon, personally called up Sharon Waxman, then a New York Times reporter, to intercede against a story that would have been unflattering to Weinstein. Was Damon also not curious about what was going on with his producer-mentor? Did Damon also never talk to Pitt on the set of the Ocean’s movies? Or on the set of The Departed, which Pitt produced and Damon starred in? Or maybe in between takes on Happy Feet 2, in which Pitt and Damon played a zany pair of gay crustaceans?

While actresses were being victimized, the Hollywood stars with the "moral conscience" just sat by silently, saying and doing nothing.

Actress Lea Seydoux (Spectre) has first-hand knowledge.

Hot Air posted:

French actress Lea Seydoux joins a growing list of women who say Harvey Weinstein tried to initiate an unwanted sexual encounter with her. Writing in the Guardian she says Weinstein demanded to meet her for drinks after a fashion show. She says he kept looking her over “as if I was a piece of meat.” She was invited up to his room and went. After a female assistant was dismissed, Weinstein literally pounced:

We were talking on the sofa when he suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. He’s big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. I left his room, thoroughly disgusted. I wasn’t afraid of him, though. Because I knew what kind of man he was all along.

Seydoux says she saw Weinstein making similar moves on a young actress at a subsequent event. “That’s the most disgusting thing,” she writes, “Everyone knew what Harvey was up to and no one did anything. It’s unbelievable that he’s been able to act like this for decades and still keep his career.”

Just like the Nazis on trial in Nuremberg, they knew.

To read more, go here.